In the oil and gas well industry, drill strings of pipe, casings or other tubulars, are stored horizontally on pipe racks situated on the ground adjacent a drilling rig. Pipe launchers are then employed for presenting and receiving individual sections of pipe to and from drilling rig platforms. Such pipe launchers are often referred to as “catwalks” as they include platforms that run along their length for service personnel to walk upon.
To move the individual sections of pipe between a catwalk and a pipe rack, it is common practice to handle and roll such tubulars manually. This task is often completed by workers standing on the tubulars while the tubulars sit or rest on top of the pipe racks.
However, placing a worker on top of these tubulars has been deemed very dangerous in both the Canadian and United States oil and gas industry. Moreover, there are regulations in both countries that require that, when a worker is working over certain heights, he or she is harnessed by means of a fall arrest system to prevent the worker from falling, thereby reducing or eliminating the chance of injury or even death. However, even such fall arrest systems do not fully eliminate worker injuries or death.
What is needed is a system or apparatus to maneuver the tubulars in a manner where no worker will have to physically handle the tubulars.